In this photo taken March 18, 2011 and released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Kyodo News, workers prepare to connect transmission lines to restore electric power supply to plant Units 3 and 4. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Kyodo News)

(Newser)
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A pair of nuclear workers in Japan have been hospitalized amid concerns of exposure to radiation, the BBC reports. They had been laying cable at Fukushima Dai-ichi’s No. 3 reactor in an effort to fix its cooling system. “Although they wore protective clothing," said a spokesman, "contaminated water seeped in and their legs were exposed to radiation." They faced 170 to 180 millisieverts of radiation, lower than the 250 millisieverts maximum that has been set for workers.

Still, "direct exposure to radiation usually leads to inflammation,” he noted, “so that's why they were sent to the hospital.” (Click to see the first photos from inside the plant.)